Sprayers are well known devices for applying a liquid spray solution of some type to a ground or turf surface. Such sprayers are typically carried on or propelled by a vehicle to allow the sprayer to be driven over a large area of the surface in a relatively short time. In order to further enhance productivity, such sprayers typically have a plurality of side-by-side, laterally extending spray booms that cover a spray swath that is larger than the width of the wheelbase of the sprayer. The outboard wing booms of such a sprayer can usually be folded inwardly to reduce the width of the sprayer for transport when the sprayer is being transported from place to place and is not being used for spraying. U.S. Pat. No. 7,364,096 to Sosnowski et al, which is owned by The Toro Company, the assignee of this invention, discloses a sprayer of this type having a fixed center boom and a pair of wing booms that can be folded into an X-shaped configuration above the center boom for transport.
Sprayers of the type under consideration here include a relatively large tank for holding a supply of the spray solution that is to be applied to the ground or turf surface. The spray solution comprises a relatively small amount of a chemical that is mixed with and suspended in solution in a relatively large amount of water in a desired ratio. One problem is ensuring that the chemical in the spray solution remains in solution with the water as it is stored in the tank prior to being sprayed. While various tank agitation systems are known in the sprayer art for attempting to solve this problem, such systems typically employ agitation nozzles that the Applicants have discovered are improperly positioned for solving the problem and which are difficult to access and/or remove for nozzle cleaning, maintenance or replacement. Accordingly, a more effective agitation system with easily removable agitation nozzles would be a desirable advance in the art.
Another difficulty posed with sprayers of this type is the need to clean the tank that holds the spray solution and the related plumbing in the spray and agitation systems of the sprayer at the conclusion of a spraying operation. Usually, the sprayer must be driven to some source of clean water, a hose must be connected to a spigot on the clean water source, the operator must climb atop the tank and remove the tank lid, and the operator then uses the hose to introduce a quantity of clean water into the tank. In doing so, the operator has to try and wash down or rinse all the interior surfaces of the tank in an attempt to remove residual chemicals. This can be difficult if not impossible to do as some of the interior surfaces may be awkwardly or inaccessibly positioned relative to the operator, thereby discouraging or preventing the operator from reaching them. In addition, such a manual operation exposes the operator to the residual chemicals in the tank.
Once the tank has been rinsed in this manner, the usual tank agitation and spray systems are operated in a flushing operation to cause the rinsate, i.e. the newly introduced clean water and residual chemical mixture, to pass through the agitation and spray systems and out through the spray nozzles on the spray boom. It may be that the water spigot used to introduce the clean water into the tank is not located at a place where the flushing operation of the rinsate may take place. For example, the clean water spigot might be located at a maintenance facility or the like where the rinsate will drain into a storm sewer system carrying the rinsate into a lake or river and environmental regulations would prohibit this. In this example, the sprayer must be returned to a location where the rinsate can be safely and legally sprayed before the flushing operation takes place. This often involves returning the sprayer to the ground or turf surface on which the sprayer was originally located as it is often acceptable to spray the rinsate onto this surface since this surface was able to accept the undiluted spray solution in the first place.
In order to completely clean the tank, it is necessary that the above-noted rinsate flushing procedure be repeated at least a few times. Driving the sprayer to the water source, manually rinsing the tank down, driving the sprayer back to a location where the flushing operation can take place, and doing this a number of times, is obviously time consuming and inconvenient. Accordingly, it would be a further advance in the art to have a simpler and more efficient rinse system for cleaning the spray solution holding tank on the sprayer without requiring undue effort on the part of the operator and without exposing the operator to residual chemicals in the tank.
The introduction of the chemicals into the tank used to hold the spray solution and the mixing of the chemicals with the water in the tank in order to form the spray solution is a further problem with such sprayers. Chemical eductors are known devices which more conveniently provide such mixing. Such eductors include relatively small hoppers that are mounted to the side of the tank. The chemicals used in the spray solution, whether in liquid or dry form, are poured directly into the hopper rather than into the tank itself.
In order to allow the operator to fill the hopper of the eductor with the chemicals, the eductor is desirably positioned at a height which can be easily reached by an operator standing on the ground. However, an eductor that is permanently mounted to the tank in this position inherently sticks out laterally to one side of the sprayer beyond the lateral wheelbase of the vehicle that carries the sprayer. This requires that the driver of the vehicle be careful to avoid banging or hitting the eductor against an obstacle that might damage the eductor or rip the eductor off the vehicle. Accordingly, it would be desirable to be able to also store the eductor in a more protected storage and transport position but to be able to quickly and easily move the eductor between its various positions.